Ukraine exported in January “grain corridor” by 25% less agricultural products than in December due to deliberate actions of Russian inspectors to delay ships in the Bosphorus, the Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine (AMPU) reported on Sunday.
According to the agency, in January the ports of “Big Odessa” processed 77 ships and sent 3 million tons of agricultural products to Africa, Asia and Europe, while in December the figure was 97 ships and 3.7 million tons of agricultural products, respectively.
At the same time, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine noted that the critically low rate of ships’ departure from the ports (2.5 ships per day) continues to remain. For comparison, in October this indicator was 5.7.
“In January, the ports worked only at 30-40% of capacity due to a shortage of the fleet to load. Three ships a day at the proposed nine are inspected in the Bosphorus and receive permission to move to Ukrainian ports for food,” – added in the ministry.
According to the ministry, the SKC plans to conduct 10 inspections a day, but Russian inspectors successfully complete only half of them.
“In January, 204 inspections were conducted, of which 173 were successful, another 31 inspections were not completed because Russian inspectors ended their workday prematurely and unilaterally at 3 p.m. 30 minutes (work time is regulated till 5:30 pm) or due to claims of documents not having been checked by the SKZ,” added the Ministry of Infrastructure.
In addition, the registration of vessels for participation in the initiative is also delayed. With more than 80 ships declared, the representatives of the aggressor country register 2-3 ships a day without any explanation. As of February 4, 120 vessels are waiting for inspection in Turkish territorial waters (98 – entering the ports for loading, 22 – with the agricultural products for the exit). The vast majority of them are waiting several weeks.
In total, for six months of operation of the “grain corridor” ports of Greater Odessa has sent 691 ships with 19.7 million tons of foodstuffs: the port of Chernomorsk – 285 ships-7.3 million tons, port “Odessa” – 215 ships-5.2 million tons and port “Pivdenny” – 191 ships with 6.6 million tons of food.
“The world received 19.7 million tons of food, and should receive more than 30 million tons, subject to the stable functioning of the corridor,” the department added.
As reported, in Istanbul on July 22 with the participation of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia signed two documents on the creation of a corridor for 120 days for the export of grain from the three Ukrainian ports – “Chernomorsk”, “Odessa” and “Pivdenniy”. After the end of its validity period, the agreement was extended for another 120 days, starting from November 19, 2022.
